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Zion’s Bend

The Virgin River flowed on, obvious to anything in its path. Then again—it was a river—and its job was to go through anything in its way. It cut through the rock, deeper into the earth every day, leaving canyons in its wake. Despite that, every now and then it deigned to go around, rather than through, for whatever reason. Such is the case at the Big Bend area in Zion National Park, Utah.

Zion’s Bend just just that: a rather large bend in the river. As it happens, there is a small series of rapids here, and the river flows over those easily; still, the rapids make the entire scene just that more picturesque. In other places, the river flows with a calmness, but that’s OK, since calm here just wouldn’t look quite as right. Add in a gorgeous fall day, and reflected light off the canyon walls, and the stage is set for an amazing view.

Once past the bend, the Virgin River opens up a bit and calms down quite a bit more, returning once again to a serenely flowing river, at least for a little while. Such is the way of the river through Zion, though, from small rapids to mirror still and back again; all in all it just adds to the charm.

The river doesn’t care. It just flows on again until the next Zion’s Bend.